


Lady Lazarus

by stayingwhelmed



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Lots of it, because that's all I can write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 19:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9673484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stayingwhelmed/pseuds/stayingwhelmed
Summary: Holding her breath, Marinette watches the shimmering mass of ladybugs cascade over Chat Noir’s body. With a swish, the last trace of the swarm disappears, and with it, the last trace of her hope. Chat is still motionless before her. Her fingers still come away sticky with blood when she presses them futilely against his wound.Apparently every classic book, movie, and fairy tale was right. No amount of magic can bring back the dead.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for adrinette month on tumblr (day 9: akumatized) and I'm actually decently satisfied with the way it turned out so I'm posting it here. Enjoy! (and please forgive any mistakes because this is rushed and unbeta-ed)

Holding her breath, Marinette watches the shimmering mass of ladybugs cascade over Chat Noir’s body. With a swish, the last trace of the swarm disappears, and with it, the last trace of her hope. Chat is still motionless before her. Her fingers still come away sticky with blood when she presses them futilely against his wound.

Apparently every classic book, movie, and fairy tale was right. No amount of magic can bring back the dead.

The scene replays over and over and over again in her mind, deluging her every thought until the numbness turns to anguish and back again. It had been just like any other battle. Chat had activated cataclysm like he had done hundreds of times before. Except this time, the akuma villain had caught his wrist before Chat could discharge his power to an object. And then the villain had twisted Chat Noir’s wrist and turned his own claws on himself. Ladybug had never screamed so loud, had never defeated an akuma villain so quickly. As soon as she’d cried the command words and hurled the spotted lucky charm into the sky, she’d detransformed and rushed to her partner’s side. He was already gone.

A morbid part of Marinette has always wondered if cataclysm is stronger than the protective suits she and Chat Noir wear. If cataclysm can be used on a person at all, or if, as a force of good, there are limits to the power. She wishes she had never found out just how limitless the power is.

 _Beepbeepbeep_. The familiar sound emanating from Chat’s ring breaks the roaring silence in her ears. Marinette swallows as arcs of electricity flicker over her partner’s form, replacing a fallen superhero with a teenage boy lying in a spreading puddle of his own blood.

“No.” The red is a stark contrast against Adrien’s white jacket and soaks into his hair. “ _No_ , I can’t **—** this can’t **—** ”

“Kid. It happened.” Plagg’s head is bowed and he rests on the ground, seemingly too dejected to float. Tikki flies down to join him, murmuring something Marinette doesn’t catch.

A sob tears through her throat as she glimpses something glittering in Adrien’s still-warm hands. She lifts it, the object unmistakable even as her vision blurs, eyes stinging. Eight beads on a string. The bracelet she’d given him nearly three years ago. It was supposed to be a good luck charm, but clearly all the luck in the world hadn’t been enough to save Chat Noir from his own cataclysm.

Her fingers close around the small token and she presses her fist to her chest as if she can drive it through and halt the grief twisting her heart. “You can’t leave me,” Marinette chokes, voice breaking.

Tikki cries out a warning. Marinette glances down and is unsurprised to see a flutter of black wings disappearing between her fingers and into her bracelet, to find a purple glow flooding her vision and a silken voice slithering into her ear.

“Lady Lazarus.” The greeting is almost dripping with triumph. “You know who I am. It’s over. You’ve lost the love of your life. But I can give you the power to bring him back. All that I require are yours and Chat Noir’s miraculouses. You don’t have use for them anymore. Wouldn’t you rather have him back and safe than continue this pointless vigilantism that took his life? ”

She doesn’t hesitate. “Do it, Hawkmoth.”

As a wave of magic bubbles over her, the crushing weight making her curl in on herself fades. She straightens, a cold determination to bring Adrien back shoving away the pain. And why should she stop there? Death has hurt so many people in this city, in the _world_ , and she has the power to reverse it. A smirk spreads slowly across her face. Lady Lazarus lifts her arms over Adrien’s corpse.

He levitates off of the ground. Bandages shoot out of Lady Lazarus’ sleeves and wrap around his body, turning the corpse into a mummified cocoon. The bandages glow with a red as deep as the blood spilled on the street.

“Rise,” Lady Lazarus commands, letting out a long exhale. The earth trembles beneath her and the bandages fall away, forming a pile of ragged cloth. Adrien drops to the ground on his hands and knees. He lets out a gasp, chest heaving as if he can’t get enough air into his lungs. Lady Lazarus waits patiently until the world stills. Adrien takes another shuddering breath, then sits back on his heels. His eyes open. They widen.

“Marinette…”

It’s as though someone has splashed cold water into her face. Hawkmoth may have akumatized her, but her head begins to clear at the sound of her name, the way Adrien’s voice wraps around those three syllables in familiar tenderness. She is suddenly engulfed with memories of him whispering that name under the sheets in blissful nights, groaning it in despair when she beats him at _Ultimate Mecha Strike III_ five times in a row, accidentally gasping it out between bursts of laughter on patrols, murmuring it in understanding during her lowest moments, saying it with a smile and eyes so soft and so full of love…

“Adrien? Oh god, Adrien, you’re really…” She swallows, her right hand drifting towards his face, so earnest though it had been a marble mask of death just moments ago. He’s safe, and he’s alive, and he’s _here_. It’s enough to quell the fury coursing through her veins. Adrien’s hand drifts upwards as well, and he takes her hand in his, moving it to rest on his cheek.

“It’s good to see you, Bugaboo. But what’s up with the bandages?”

Marinette drops her hand, glancing down at her Hawkmoth-issued outfit. She’s wearing a long sleeved, form-fitting crop top and a long, flowing skirt, both swirling with red and black **—** colors of the underworld rather than ones representing the luck of a ladybug. Bandages are wrapped around her torso, her upper arms, and trail out of her sleeves. There’s a slight pressure around her eyes as well, and she can imagine a butterfly mask made of that same white cloth is there. “I needed to see you,” she whispers, flitting her gaze back up to meet Adrien’s. He sighs.

“I would never want you to be akumatized for me, Marinette.” He pauses. They’re both searching for words that will never capture the gravity of their thoughts.

“How are you feeling?” Marinette says instead of the thousands of things she feels she needs to express in one breath.

“Well, I feel a little _dead on my feet_ , but otherwise, I’m good.”

Something between a laugh and a sob escapes Marinette. She pitches forward, falling into Adrien’s ready embrace. He holds her close to him. She can’t tell if she’s the one shaking or if they both are.

“Mari, you know this can’t last.”

“Why not?” She can hear the petulance in her own voice and knows it’s the akuma speaking. “We’ve never had a world without death before; you don’t know that it wouldn’t be right. Maybe this is what I’m meant to do. I can stay Lady Lazarus, and you can help me, and **—** ”

“And you’d spend the rest of your life as Hawkmoth’s puppet? You wouldn’t be able to return to your _family_ , Marinette. And we can’t just hand over our miraculouses to a terrorist so that you can keep me here. You still have to fight,” he says quietly. “I wish I could fight with you.” His voice, so firm and reassuring before, is barely audible in its moment of weakness.

“You’re right. I know,” she relents. She sits back, bracing herself for the end. A world of terrible understanding passes between them. There’s nothing they can do to fix this.

“Adrien.” Plagg’s voice cracks. Adrien cups his hands, and the kwami floats up to rest in them.

“Plagg **…** Thank you. Thank you for everything.” Adrien looks up, meeting Marinette’s eyes. “Tell them, okay? Nino, Chloe, Alya, my father… everyone.” She nods, throat constricting. He takes a deep breath. “Okay. Give me the bracelet, Mari,” he says gently. Hot tears escape and streak down her face. Her hand shakes violently as she slips the akumatized object off of her wrist and slowly, agonizingly, gives it up to Adrien. For once she knows exactly how hard it is for an akuma villain to give up their object of power; she feels utterly vulnerable. But despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to snatch the bracelet back, she keeps her eyes on Adrien and resists the urge. Adrien holds the bracelet and nods to something beside her. Someone. Tikki. The kwami floats up to hover by his side and faces Marinette.

“Whenever you’re ready.“

“Can I even become Ladybug while akumatized?” Tikki’s only answer is a listless shrug. Marinette takes a deep breath with a nod.

“Tikki, transform me.”

As her transformation washes over her, Marinette can feel the _wrongness_ of her power combining with the akuma’s in a visceral way. It feels as if Tikki will break away from her any second, but she holds onto the transformation and the last time she will be Ladybug with her Chat Noir.

Adrien rips the string in two, beads clattering to the ground. A black akuma slinks out of one of the beads, and Marinette catches it in her yoyo methodically. With a tap, the surface of her yoyo snaps open, releasing a purified butterfly. Marinette knows what she needs to do next will rip Adrien from her forever.

"I don’t want to,” she gasps.

“You have to.” Adrien looks as helpless as she feels.

Marinette leans forward, and Adrien brushes her lips with his in a soft final kiss. As she forces herself to pull away, he takes her hands, giving her the strength to do the impossible. To let him go. 

"Miraculous Ladybug.” No lucky charm had been used, so she tosses her yoyo into the air and it explodes in a shower of light. For a moment, Marinette can almost pretend the two of them are sitting together beneath a breathtaking fireworks show, can almost imagine the tightness in her chest is from excitement rather than heartbreak. But it isn’t. And there will never be a fireworks show. She will never again spend a moment with her partner. Her best friend. The boy she loves.

Her power is supposed to _fix_ everything. It’s supposed to make things right. But as the fluttering swarm of insects approaches, it looks more like an unstoppable plague than a force of salvation. Because how can this be _right_? How can this be fate? How can this be what the universe has decided? Her grip tightens desperately in Adrien’s hands.  
  
“Goodbye, my lady. I love you,” Adrien murmurs with a tender smile on his lips.  
  
“I love you too.” The words aren’t enough, but they’re all she can manage.  
  
The power of the miraculous washes over the two of them. She watches the light fade from those brilliant green eyes. In an instant, the swirl of red dissipates. And then the only red left is the pool of blood staining the lifeless body crumpled on the pavement.


End file.
